After taking a breather, it was right back to dance practice again. Jaehyun took a deep breath and stood up from the metal chair he had been resting in, bracing himself for what was to come. Although his muscles ached from hours of practice and his skin gleamed with sweat, as an athlete, he was used to exerting himself and pushing himself to his limits. It didn't take long for him to rebound once he caught his breath again. He coolly adjusted his sweatpants before rejoining the rest of the group around their instructor, Kim Soohwan. The room resonated with the sound of trainees murmuring among themselves, finishing conversations from their break and wondering what they were going to do next, until Soohwan silenced everyone by loudly clearing his throat. All was deathly quiet save for the scrawling of a cheap mechanical pencil against paper on a clipboard as another man in the room busily jotted down notes. Over the past week or so, Jaehyun had noticed him coming in every now and again to watch them in a suspicious manner, but he put his thoughts aside once the instructor began to speak.

           "All right, everyone, break into groups of three or four," Soohwan began, audibly clasping his hands together as if to punctuate his statement. The other man occasionally glanced up at them as he wrote. "We're going to do a group exercise."

           Jaehyun perked up. It was no secret that boys around his age group loved to do group exercises, especially if it meant that they could be partnered up with their friends, and he was no different. Excited murmuring broke out anew among the trainees, much to their instructor's annoyance. He had to make a motion to indicate he was about to speak in order to get everyone to quiet down again. Once the last whisper died down, Soohwan continued with their instructions.

           "Anyone who isn't in a proper group within three minutes will be put into one by me. Now..." Soohwan paused to look at the silver wristwatch on his left wrist. Silence and tension filled the atmosphere as they waited for him to give the signal, each second seeming to take an eternity. Jaehyun hated standing so dreadfully still; he impatiently clenched and unclenched his fists in anticipation, furrowing his brow and tensing his muscles. He could feel the beating of his heart in his fingertips and toes.

           "Go!"

           Soohwan's phrase didn't have time to resonate throughout the room; the instant he spoke, the trainees rushed to partner themselves up with their closest friends. It only took mere seconds for a couple groups to fill up and only a few seconds more for most groups to meet the basic requirement of three members. Similarly, within moments, Jaehyun had two fellow trainees by his side. His charisma tended to draw others to him like a magnet to begin with.

           The first to approach him was a slightly older trainee by the rather unusual name of Kam Iseul. He wore a bright, confident smile on his face as he gingerly picked his way through the crowd to meet him, brushing his long dark hair out of his face with a delicate sweep of his hand. Iseul carried himself with an almost gentlemanly grace that starkly contrasted the rough, rowdy nature of most of the younger trainees; all of his movements were deliberate and precise. Despite the fact that they were in the middle of a practice session, he even dressed nicely compared to everyone else. By every definition of the phrase, he was a true 'flower boy'.

           "Hey," Iseul casually greeted with a slight tilt of his head. Had anyone else done it, it might have been seen as a vain effort to appear cute, but when Iseul tilted his head, it somehow gave off a cool vibe. Jaehyun envied his charms, in a way; very few of the other trainees expressly disliked him. For the most part, he was well-liked and didn't seem to have a care in the world. When it came to group exercises, though, there wasn't anyone else Jaehyun would rather have on his side. It was true that Iseul struggled to memorize all the steps to a given dance routine, but he was otherwise a great dancer that could keep up well with him.

           It didn't take long for their third member to join them. Teenaged Yoo Jeonhyuk bounded toward them with the enthusiasm and energy of a young buck, a broad grin spread across his face as he rushed to take his place in the group. His dark hair cutely bobbed a little above his eyes with each step he took. Unlike Iseul, his movements were abrupt and careless as to be expected of his tender age in comparison to his much older, more mature companions. Even so, he had a kind of grace to his light footsteps that came naturally without him having to think about it; it helped that Jeonhyuk had been doing gymnastics since he could walk, basically.

           "Sorry to make you guys wait, here I am!" Jeonhyuk chirped coquettishly with the same playful, charming smile he almost always wore. His mischievous mannerisms and inability to be serious in situations where laughter was inappropriate annoyed Jaehyun sometimes, but at the end of the day, his cutesy demeanor and permanent smile always won him over. He had a soft spot for the kid and couldn't help but grin along with him; Jeonhyuk seemed to have that effect on people whether they liked it or not. In spite of his young age and immaturity, there was no doubt that Jeonhyuk was a fantastic dancer on par with both of his hyungs.

           Their typical group was officially in formation within a single minute. Likewise, all of the other groups had already met up and were ready for further instruction. In fact, only two of the trainees weren't partnered up in a group yet. Jaehyun immediately recognized them as Kenny and Ryuu. Kenny's leg injury had been acting up earlier in the day so he had to sit out and observe the others from the sidelines. From the corner of his eye, Jaehyun could see him thoroughly massaging his crippled leg in an effort to ease the pain. Ryuu, however, sort of awkwardly stood around as if he had nowhere to go. Despite easily being among the youngest trainees in the room, he had a certain maturity about him that defied his age. Cold and distant, he didn't have many friends and wasn't especially popular among the other trainees.

           Jeonhyuk took notice and was the first to speak up. "Hey, he looks lonely, right?" he asked aloud, his lips curling into a concerned frown as he crossed his arms. He instinctively turned to the older two for their opinions. "Maybe we should, y'know, invite him to join us? We still have one spot left..."

           Iseul nodded in agreement. "Yes, I believe it would be best not to exclude him," he eloquently spoke, just as he almost always did. He turned to Jaehyun with a warm smile, awaiting his approval. "Well?"

           Although Iseul was Jaehyun's senior by two years, Jaehyun was the clear leader of the group. After all, leadership came naturally to him; for him, it was second nature. He didn't need to deliberate at all to make a firm decision. "Yeah, let's see if he wants to join us," he decided, and without further hesitation, he set off to go ask him with his two companions in tow. It never hurt to try to include someone who was clearly left out.

           Ryuu noticed the trio approaching and slowly turned to face them with a blank expression on his face. Jaehyun didn't know him very well, but he knew him well enough that he rarely expressed any emotion other than the icy stare he was fixing Jaehyun with at that moment. His feminine facial features and long, well-kept hair betrayed his masculinity; he was almost unnaturally beautiful. If he didn't know any better, Jaehyun could have easily mistaken Ryuu to be a part of the fairer . He was somewhat startled to learn of his true gender at first. Not one to be intimidated, he cleared his throat and gave Ryuu the friendliest smile that he could muster.

           "Hey, wanna join our group? We could use one more member," Jaehyun offered in English. Having spoken to him at least a couple of times before, he knew that Ryuu didn't understand Korean as well as the rest of the trainees did. At least Ryuu could speak English, Jaehyun's native tongue, fairly well.

           For a fleeting moment, Ryuu continued to give Jaehyun a curious stare and bit his lip, his gaze wandering to Iseul and Jeonhyuk before fixating on Jaehyun once more. He swallowed and gave him a firm nod of affirmation. "Y-Yeah... Thank you," he mumbled his gratitude. Although he wasn't smiling, Jaehyun could sense at least some gratitude in his tone and that was enough to make him smile.

           "Time's up. Sit down with your group, everyone," Soohwan announced once the three minutes had passed. Without hesitation, Jaehyun's group sat down together with the rest of the trainees save for Kenny who could only sit and watch while his old leg injury was acting up. Everyone chattered and laughed among their groups until Soohwan loudly clasped his hands together as if to speak. All at once the room fell silent, all eyes gazing up at their instructor. The man sitting in the back continued to write down notes, occasionally looking up from his clipboard. "You're going to practice the routine we did earlier with your group. Likewise, you'll also be evaluated for your synchronization later on, so make sure nobody falls behind..."

           Jaehyun's mind couldn't help but wander off onto other thoughts while the instructor spoke. It was going to be a long day.